EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
(For text of full study please click on link to the right)
Recently there have been discussions on the desirability of replacing at least some of the purse seining for tuna (yellowfin and skipjack) in the Pacific Islands region with pole-and-line fishing. Pole-and-line fishing, however desirable, is highly dependent on live baitfish supplies. The purpose of this short study is to estimate the quantities of baitfish that would be required to replace purse seining in the Pacific Islands region and to examine the ability of the region’s baitfish resources to support that replacement. (Page 4)
The pole-and-line tuna fisheries in the Pacific reached a maximum roughly 30 years ago. At the time 79,178 metric tons (mt) of tuna were caught using about 2,474 mt of baitfish. Comparatively, in the past ten years the catch of the purse seine fishery in the Pacific Islands region has ranged from about 750,000 mt per year to well over a million mt per year. For simplicity, this report uses an annual Pacific Islands tuna purse seine catch of one million mt. (Pages 7-8)
If the amount of purse-seine caught tuna in the Pacific Island region were to be replaced with pole-and-line caught tuna it is estimated to require about 31,250 mt of baitfish per year, making the amount of baitfish required to catch a million tons of tuna close to 13 times the baitfish used during the height of the Pacific Islands pole-and-line fishery. (Page 8)
It would appear that any new and large pole-an-line fishery in the region would be based largely on the baitfish resources of PNG and the Solomon Islands, and to a much lesser extent, Palau and Fiji. There is some evidence that during the height of the pole-and-line fishing era, the baitfish resources at popular baiting areas were under heavy fishing pressure, perhaps even overexploited, requiring catch restrictions that later led to a recovery. (Page 8)
An increase in fishing pressure on the Pacific Islands region’s bait fisheries would require significantly increased attention paid to management of the bait fish resources, especially since they are usually more difficult to manage than tuna and are often key forage sources in the ecosystem. During the height of the pole-and-line fishery there was apparently minimal management of baitfishing activities with regards to sustainability of the resource. If the present trends in fisheries management are projected into the future, it is likely that many countries would have considerable difficulty in establishing and maintaining an effective management regime for baitfisheries. (Page 10)
It is also important to consider that the production of 31,250 mt of baitfish in Pacific Island inshore areas would likely have substantial interaction with the multitude of small-scale subsistence and commercial fishing activities that produce food for the villages and towns of the region. This could easily have negative food security implications for the areas that produce large quantities of baitfish for industrial fishing operations. Further, replacing purse seining with pole-and-line fishing would mean a large displacement of surface tuna fishing activities towards the western part of the region which is richer in baitfish resources. This may not be equitable or acceptable to many Pacific Island countries and could have negative implications for regional solidarity in the fisheries sector – something that is vitally important to Pacific Island countries. (Page 9)
There are alternatives to wild capture bait fisheries in the Pacific Islands region, mainly the culture of baitfish and the transportation of baitfish into the region. The main difficulty with the culture and transport schemes is that they add substantial costs to pole-and- line fishing – which (even without those extra expenses) has tremendous difficulty with high production costs relative to purse seining. Bait transport schemes also suffer from problems related to species and disease introductions. (Page 11)
Conclusions
The three major conclusions of the present study are:
• It is estimated that to catch a million metric tons of tuna annually in the Pacific Islands region (i.e. replace the purse seine fishery) would require about 31,250 tonnes of baitfish per year.
• Although it is unlikely that the region could support a fishery capable of catching 31,250 metric tons of baitfish, there is not enough information available to make a definitive statement to that effect.
• Apart from the issue of whether the region could produce a large amount of baitfish for industrial fishing, there may be considerable negative implications of a large increase in baitfishing on small-scale food fisheries.
This study was conducted by Robert Gillett of Gillett, Preston and Associates with a grant from the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation.